The State of California will hold an application development contest this summer, according to O’Reilly Radar , and the state is partnering with Google , Microsoft , ProgrammableWeb , and IdeaScale to make it happen. ProgrammableWeb’s site for the contest will be live later today. Update: ProgrammableWeb’s Apps for California site is now live. Sponsor “ProgrammableWeb will be the hosting point for all the contest entries,” company founder John Musser told ReadWriteWeb. “Developers will register their apps on PW and our readers and community of developers will be able to see these contest entries, rate them, as well as learn more about the contest.” California will be using Microsoft’s Open Government Data Initiative collection and Google’s Fusion Tables to provide access to the data sets, which will be listed in ProgrammableWeb’s directory of over 2,000 APIs. The state will also use IdeaScale to solicit feedback and ideas for new applications from non-technical citizens. The State of California follows Washington DC’s Apps for Democracy contest, The Sunlight Foundation -sponsored Apps for America contest, and the U.S, Army’s Apps for the Army . As the most populous state in the U.S., California’s move bodes well for the future of open government. “Overall, this initiative from the state of California is a big step on the road to more open APIs and transparency from government, and we’re looking forward to seeing the innovative apps created as a result,” Musser said. Discuss

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If you’ve been following our posts about augmented reality (AR) in the last few months, you’ve noticed that we speak often about practicality and its importance for the proliferation of the technology. Sure, gimmicky applications can be fun and new, but it’s my opinion that the more practical and useful an AR application is, the better suited it is to help push AR toward mainstream acceptance. With that being said, AR developers should be aware of a contest being hosted by metaio , the makers of the junaio iPhone app and mobile AR platform, which will reward creativity and practicality in AR. Sponsor The company says over 200 developers have flocked to the platform since opening up junaio’s API to the public, and to reward them, they are giving $5,000 to the developer who makes the best use of it. Developers can sign up on junaio’s website where they can follow instructions on how to get started creating a “channel” for their AR content. The company is encouraging as much creativity and practicality as possible in order to stand out against the crowd of simple POI locators. “The creative potential of junaio is vast: AR Mashups, multiplayer games or scavenger hunts, interactive, indoor and outdoor exhibitions, tours with animated 3D characters, eduainment right on the spot and location independent gaming,” the company expressed in press release. “It is up to the developer to challenge his imagination and become as much creative as he wants to.” On June 16, the top five channels with the most subscribers will become finalists in the contest, and the winner will ultimately be chosen by a panel of AR and IT aficionados, including Robert Scoble , Thomas Carpenter of Games Alfresco , and Dr. Christian Geiger, professor and mixed reality researcher at Düsseldorf University. I will also be participating on the judges panel, and am very excited to see the innovative AR channels that could come from this contest. I am also thrilled that metaio and junaio are pushing the creative side of the contest. It is much easier for gimmicky AR applications to become popular, but these kinds of applications don’t benefit AR as much as actual useful implementations. The subscriber threshold will merely be used to shorten the list of applications that will be considered for the prize, but that doesn’t mean the most popular one will win. For more information on the contest and on the junaio platform, check out their website , or if you happen to be in Germany, stop by at AR DevCamp in Berlin this Friday. There will be free sessions available for developers to learn the capabilities of the API and will provide a jumping-off point for those new to the platform. Discuss

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That didn’t long. Leave it to marketers to find a way to use any innovative new web service to promote their own ends. The latest example? A Chatroulette contest launched by international clothing brand French Connection. According to contest rules , participants are asked if they can “conquer the sinister world of Chatroulette” by charming a member of the opposite sex. (Initially, the contest was for men only, but due to protests , the rules were adjusted to permit women the opportunity to try and seduce men, too. Oh joy.) Sponsor According to the initial company blog post about the contest, “if you rise above the seas of failing men and charm a woman on Chatroulette,” the company promises to give you a voucher worth 250 pounds which you can spend at the company’s retail stores. The blog post then provides an example of what they mean by a “seduction attempt” by way of a screenshot of a Chatroulette chat session – and be warned, it’s not what we would consider safe for work. Instead, what French Connection is promoting is essentially a nod to the often perverse nature of the popular webcam-surfing site. Chatroulette for Marketing: Risky or Brilliant? Although the French Connection brand may pride themselves on their youthful, hip nature, it’s an arguably risky move to promote themselves via a service as odd, off-the-wall, and yes, occasionally very disturbing as Chatroulette . Like Casey Neistat recently explained in a charming video demo of this latest Internet craze, on any given day, Chatroulette is 71% male, 15% female and 14% pervert. In fact, it’s the possibility of running into something odd – or rather someone odd doing something odd- that makes Chatroulette so exciting for its users. Like the game of Russian Roulette from which its name is derived, most of the time nothing remarkable happens – you run into another bored voyeur looking back and you and maybe even have a casual conversation. But every now and then… bang ! And it’s the bang that seems to appeal to French Connection. They want to send out their customers into the wild, wild west of Chatroulette to become the very sort of creepy perverts that make the site so darned intriguing. So now, dear Chatroulette users, you’ll have to wonder whether that freaky guy/gal hitting on you is doing so because they’re actually a weirdo or if they’re just trying to win a few bucks to spend at a clothing store. Thanks to French Connection’s bravery, they have the honor of being the first brand to attempt using Chatroulette for marketing purposes. However, if the contest goes well (i.e., it generates a lot of press), other marketers will likely soon follow suit. Is that a good thing? We’re not so sure. At least, it’s not good for us, the Chatroulette surfers. Marketers, though, may think it’s a downright brilliant move. And maybe it is – after all, who would have thought that anyone could have figured out how to promote a brand on a service like this? Still, we sort of wish the marketers would leave this one alone. Stick to Facebook and Twitter and the other straight-laced social sites of the Internet – leave Chatroulette and all its unrestricted debauchery alone. Discuss

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We have all been to an event where a 50/50 raffle was taking place to raise money for a particular organization or cause, but what if this same style of fund raising was applied to funding startups? Under30CEO , an online resource for young entrepreneurs, has teamed up with the developers of the BizBreak iPhone app to host the Limitless VC Contest . The winner will receive a cash prize including 50% of the app’s revenue during the period of the contest, along with mentoring from five notable entrepreneurs. Sponsor Startups can enter by submitting a short video to YouTube describing their company and their plans for spending the possible winnings. Applicants (who must be at least 18) are also required to provide feedback on the BizBreak app (boosting both sales of the app and the contest pot size), which is a gimmicky game that pokes fun at corporate bosses by pitting them in a boxing match against the user. The contest will last 60 days at which point the 8 most viewed video entries and 2 wild card entries will be placed on the contest site for a week of final round voting. The contest pot starts at $3,000 and will increase with each app sale during the 60 days. After Apple’s 30% cut, 50% of each app sale will generate just below $0.35 for pot, so entrants are encouraged to spread the word about the app. On top of cash prize, winners will receive consulting from five entrepreneurs including Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com, and crowdSPRING co-founder Ross Kimbarovsky. The other mentors include author/entrepreneurs Cameron Johnson and Mike Michalowicz, as well as Yanik Silver, founder of Maverick Business Adventures and the UG6 seminar. In the true spirit of Under30CEO, at just 19-years-old, the founder of BizBreak, Marshall Haas, barely qualifies for his own contest. BizBreak is actually Haas’ third company in the last two years, having previously founded online automotive parts retailer Velocity Source (a venture he was able to sell) and inVision Projects, an architectural design rendering company. Unlike the South by Southwest Interactive competition whose finalists we mentioned earlier this morning , this contest just got underway yesterday and applications will be accepted until midnight the night of April 16th. This is an interesting approach to both small business fund raising and to spreading the awareness of the BizBreak app. If the winnings pot is going to grow, however, its going to take a lot of endorsement from the applicants since every thousand downloads will only add roughly $350 to the pot. Discuss

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